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This is the latest, most comprehensive, report on Jonglei inter-tribal conflict–and disarmament–from one of my fellow South sudanese bloggers, John Penn de Ngong, who also happen to be the Secretary General to the JCSG—Jonglei Civil Society Group. Please check it out below:
Thanks,
PaanLuel Wel.
By: Tears Ayuen
The biblical message written in the book of Prophet Isaiah that says God shall unleash His tsunami of hate, anger and bring to ashes the people of Sudan, titled “God Shall Punish Sudan” is both gruesome and traumatic. It is a threat. It could even be a religious conspiracy to eliminate the tall people. It kills me softly. It keeps me wondering; why is God to punish the strong and powerful nation, tall and smooth-skinned people living along the Nile River, feared all over the world? What sin or sins have the people of Sudan committed that they appear in the God’s list of those who will taste His wrath? And when was that? What is the magnitude of the sin committed?
All right, when will God punish Sudan? Hasn’t he punished the Sudanese yet? Isn’t the God’s law that might have been violated by the Sudanese not one of the Ten Commandments? If yes, isn’t it forgivable? Isn’t God forgiving?
It also keeps me guessing; perhaps the Sudanese of that time contributed to the enslavement of the God’s chosen people, the Israelites, when they were in the land of Egypt. Or maybe warriors from one of the Sudan’s kingdoms, let’s say, Napata, walked distances, crossed the seas and beat the cream out of Jews, destroying them to nothing, a battle which I suspect the authors of the bible maliciously omitted. What really happened? Or is there any other Sudan other than the present day Sudan whose city is Juba? I am dazed and confused.
I know you would love to know who this inquisitive person is. Yes, I am tall and smooth-skinned, born somewhere along river Nile. Thus, I am the one Isaiah 18 talks about?
Every time I open that part of the bible, I feel sick. It nauseates me. I get discouraged. I feel like a patient, with some complicated diseases of the body systems, who got informed by a doctor of the number of days or months left to die. In fact, it discourages me from reading the bible. What eats me up most is the Grammar; the title is in future form yet I feel already punished. From the time I was born to the very moment you are reading this sentence.
I was born during the war, in the jungle where neither clinic nor hospital was heard of. Nothing scientific was in the vicinity accept war tanks and war artilleries. No vaccination no immunization no nothing against any childhood diseases and ailments. No birth certificate too. I don’t know my birthday. Mama has no clear memory of where and when I was born. All she remembers is the sound of gunshots and a tall tree she bore me under.
In addition, I was raised up in the forest. Just picture a baby born and brought up in the forest, where there are no drugs and medicines, no house to shelter from rain, no coverings at least to keep the cold away…..only breast milk. And how about the mother? What does she eat in order to keep the breast milk “factory” functional? Grass or mud? Who knows? Isn’t it punishment? Yet the bible boldly insists, ‘God will punish Sudan”.
Hasn’t He punished the Sudanese yet? These tall and smooth-skinned people feared all over the world are scattered all over the world. Aren’t they facing untold sufferings? Aint they treated with contempt wherever they are. Hasn’t God punished them yet?
How about the Sudanese you know of? Most of them are maimed .many have lost limbs to the war. Some limp, some crawl. Aren’t they half-creatures now? We have been and are still suffering.
Sudan has never been peaceful since time immemorial. She is constantly at war, internal war. It is like the manufacturers of war weapons produce them having Sudan in mind as the market. Very funny! All types of weapons, from a 9mm pistol to the most dangerous atomic bomb are there. And to prove it, go to Sudan and see for yourself what it is like. The ground is covered with exhaust war metals, all over. Everything has been ruined. All is debris.
It is obvious to everyone that God has punished, has been punishing the tall and smooth-skinned people, yes? And I know I’m going to sound offbeat if I told you that the punishment is being exaggerated by Isaiah 18. Believe me; the fact that the title is in Future tense keeps the punishment fire blazing.
To get it right, let’s do something about it. What do we do?
I got an idea; that portion of the Holy Bible should be changed. I mean it! We gotta put it in past form like “God Has Punished Sudan”. I may be evil or of little or no faith to say that but I am serious. Give me a break! Only God can judge me!
The best way we can do that is by summoning the religious leaders; Buddhists, Muslims and Christians together for a prayer. The prayer should be said in unison and I suggest it goes like this: “Almighty father, you said no one must alter anything written in Your Holy Book lest he or she faces serious consequences. But Lord, we beg of you, allow us change only Isaiah 18 for it is a major threat to the Sudanese, and in your Holy name we pray, Amen.”
Thereafter, those religious heads should order publication of a new edition of the Holy Bible with everything in Isaiah 18 in “was” form. I assure you it could work. This gonna be a relief to the Sudanese. There would be no more pain and sufferings. Peace, love and harmony shall then rein forever.
April 01, 2012
South Sudan Says Khartoum Stalls Peace Talks While Waging War
Peter Heinlein | Addis Ababa
South Sudan has accused the Khartoum government of rejecting peace overtures while its forces bomb targets in the south. As a result, African Union-mediated talks in Addis Ababa are in danger of collapse.
South Sudan chief negotiator Pagan Amum says Sudanese warplanes bombed southern positions for a seventh day Sunday, while Khartoum’s defense minister spurned scheduled security talks. He said the minister’s absence for a meeting of a Joint Political and Security Mechanism (JPSM) shows Sudan is rejecting the AU-mediated peace process.
“Unfortunately, the response of Khartoum is war. They have launched aerial and ground attacks from Monday. Up to today they are bombing South Sudan. The government of Sudan is the one that is waging war, the head of the JPSM on their side is not here. The Meeting was supposed to take place yesterday, and he has not appeared.”
Officials of the AU mediation panel described the talks as “on hold” pending the arrival of the Sudanese defense minister. They held out hope that he was on his way after receiving what was described as a personal invitation from the chief mediator, former South African president Thabo Mbeki.
Trading accusations
The South Sudanese delegation that arrived for the scheduled start of the talks was clearly upset at having to wait while defense ministry officials in Khartoum deal with what they say is a military incursion from the south.
Chief southern negotiator Pagan Amum flatly rejected reports of a military incursion into Sudanese territory.
“There is no South Sudanese presence. Not a single South Sudanese soldier on Sudanese soil”.
Mediators had hoped the talks would lead to a rescheduling of a summit meeting between Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir and South Sudanese President Salva Kiir. The meeting had originally been set for April 3 in the South Sudanese capital, Juba. But the Khartoum government backed out of the meeting after accusing the South of attacking the Sudanese oil center of Heglig last Monday.
The south vehemently denies the attack, and accuses Sudan of instigating the clash.
Remaining hopeful
Mediation panel sources remained hopeful Sunday that the Juba summit might still be held, though it could be delayed a week. They say a meeting of the presidents is crucial to breaking logjams that have delayed progress in the talks on key issues, including sharing oil revenues.
South Sudan is said to be in especially desperate straits after shutting down its oil production in January. Oil accounts for 98 percent of the country’s income.
South Sudan’s Foreign Minister Nhial Deng Nhial tells VOA his government would be willing to move the summit to a neutral site, probably Addis Ababa, if that would ease Khartoum’s objections.
“We have no objection at all to meeting President Bashir in a venue other than Juba in South Sudan, though we would prefer President Bashir to come to Juba, as a return because President Salva paid a visit to Khartoum last October and the understanding was that President Bashir would come to Juba. But if for any reason he feels coming to Juba is objectionable, we have no problem meeting him anywhere else.”
African Union officials said mediation panel chief Thabo Mbeki was willing to stay as long as necessary to get the two sides to implement a Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mechanism. The mechanism is aimed at preventing a war by jointly examining outbreaks of hostilities along the disputed frontier. The mechanism was part of an agreement signed last June, weeks before the south declared independence from Khartoum.
| Sudan, South Sudan Leaders Urged to Convene Planned Summit AllAfrica.com By Tesfa-Alem Tekle, 31 March 2012 Addis Ababa — Countries bordering Sudan and South Sudan, as well as international organisations, have called on Presidents Omar Hassan Al Bashir and Salva Kiir Mayardit to convene their planned 3 April meeting, … |
| South Sudan open to investment in oil and minerals Sudan Tribune March 31, 2012 (JUBA) – South Sudan is open to investment in the oil and minerals sector, the country’s deputy minister of petroleum and mining told Sudan Tribune on Saturday, explaining that it is in the interest of the government to diversify economy … |
| South Sudan, Sudan Resume Clashes Ahead of Talks Wall Street Journal By NICHOLAS BARIYO KAMPALA, Uganda—The armies of oil-producing South Sudan and Sudan have resumed clashes after a lull of three days ahead of talks aimed at preventing the resumption of conflict between the former civil war foes, officials said Sunday. |
| Sudan, South Sudan accuse each other of border attacks The Province By Hereward Holland and Aaron Maasho, Reuters March 31, 2012 A patient recovers at Bentiu Hospital, in South Sudan’s Unity state, on March 29, 2012. The hospital has received 33 war wounded and a military hospital nearby another 40 after clashes on the … |
| South Sudan Says Khartoum Stalls Peace Talks While Waging War Voice of America April 01, 2012 South Sudan Says Khartoum Stalls Peace Talks While Waging War Peter Heinlein | Addis Ababa South Sudan has accused the Khartoum government of rejecting peace overtures while its forces bomb targets in the south. |
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Peter Biar
Peter Biar was one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, the group of orphaned, displaced children who trekked more than a thousand miles to escape the soldiers in Southern Sudan who had killed their families and destroyed their homes.
In Pittsburgh, Mr. Biar, like many of those youths, found himself again. He learned English and found a good job, paid for his younger brother’s first years of vocational school and became an American citizen, returned to Africa to get married and fathered a son he never got to meet, or even see in pictures.
Because on Wednesday, Mr. Biar, whose beaming smile and gentle heart lifted the spirits of everyone he met, died of lung cancer. He was 31 and had never smoked.
Even among the hardworking, unfailingly grateful members of the Sudanese community in Pittsburgh, Mr. Biar stood out as a sort of quiet ambassador to the American people, his friends said.
“He was so innocent and sweet and kind,” said Ann Talarek, who helped Mr. Biar find a job after he arrived in June 2001 and become a U.S. citizen in November 2007. “I don’t know one person who wasn’t touched by Peter everywhere we went.”
Mr. Biar was born Jan. 1, 1981, in a village in southern Sudan that he — like millions of other Christian and animist residents of the region — was forced to flee after government soldiers from the Arab North attacked.
During the war, in which approximately 2.5 million people were killed, thousands of orphans walked more than a thousand miles to Ethiopia, then to the Kenyan refugee camps where they would spend the remainder of their childhoods. About half the 20,000 “lost boys” who began the journey died along the way from starvation, dehydration, illness and attacks by lions, crocodiles and enemy soldiers.
After enduring those horrors, Mr. Biar arrived in Pittsburgh with three dozen other young men, part of a group of 3,800 people who were among the first to arrive in the United States as part of a resettlement program by Catholic Charities and other aid organizations.
Like generations of immigrants before him, from countries around the world, Mr. Biar and the other Sudanese learned English and started job training. He started janitorial work at the St. Joseph House of Hospitality, where he worked for six years. Later, he found a job as a janitor at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Bethel Park.
In 2002, Mr. Biar also began a part-time job — on New Year’s Day, his 21st birthday — at the Duquesne Club, where he worked as a dishwasher. On his first day at work, the club served 1,500 meals but Mr. Biar never flagged or complained, human resources director Irma Thornton said.
His attitude, in fact, was unflappably upbeat during all 10 years Mr. Biar worked for the club, where he took on full-time hours in January 2008, she said.
“He was just universally known by his big smile,” she said. “He was always so kind to everyone and always such a positive individual.”
Many of the club’s employees contributed money, she said, after they learned that Mr. Biar — who roomed with three other men in the Prospect Park apartment complex in Whitehall to save money and sent most of his earnings to relatives back in Africa — hadn’t had time to set aside money for burial after his diagnosis in November.
All the Sudanese are hard workers, Ms. Talarek said, but Mr. Biar just loved going to work.
“He loved to talk to people, he loved riding the bus and seeing his co-workers, and I know when he got sick he missed the Duquesne Club so much,” she said. “It must have been so hard for him not to be able to work.”
In June 2008, Mr. Biar married a Sudanese woman, Angok Akoi, after a visit home in which he also reunited with his parents, who survived the war. In June 2010, the couple had a son, Nul Biar, named after Mr. Biar’s younger brother.
Mr. Biar, however, didn’t get a chance to travel back to Africa to see his son before he got sick, and no one there had a camera to take a picture of the boy, Ms. Talarek said.
After his diagnosis in late November, the cancer moved quickly through his body, erasing any hope of a final trip to meet his son, she said. But Mr. Biar — who had never taken medicine before — fought hard to survive, enduring rounds of chemotherapy, injecting himself with blood thinners and following every doctor’s order.
Even after he got sick, she said, Mr. Biar still thought almost entirely of helping his family, skimping on food for himself to pay for his little brother’s tuition at the vocational school in Uganda where he is learning to become a mechanic, or to buy food for a cousin who had her appendix removed in a Ugandan hospital.
Through it all, Ms. Talarek said, Mr. Biar always gave far more than he took, and wanted nothing for himself — only that his wife and son would be safe, and that his brother would finish school.
“I’m really grateful I got to spend that time with him, and the people who know Peter know how privileged we were to know him in the time we did, for the short time — the too-short time — he was here,” Ms. Talarek said. “I’m a better person for having Peter in my life, and I know I’m not alone in that one.”
A visitation will be held from 10 a.m. until noon today at D’Alessandro Funeral Home & Crematory in Lawrenceville, followed by a prayer service at the funeral home and burial at Calvary Cemetery.
Amy McConnell Schaarsmith: 412-263-1719 or aschaarsmith@post-gazette.com.
| Sudan governor to troops: ‘Take no prisoners’ – World News San Francisco Luxury News Southern Kordofan holds most of Sudan’s remaining known oil reserves, after South Sudanseceded in July 2011, taking its oilfields with it. Southern Kordofan has become a strategic asset for Khartoum, but rebels there want to follow Juba and be granted … |
| President Dos Santos Gets Message From South Sudan Counterpart AllAfrica.com Luanda — The President of the Republic, José Eduardo dos Santos, Thursday, in Luanda, received a message from his counterpart of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, focused on the need to address possible areas of cooperation between both African … |
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| Fear of new war stalks South Sudan border state Times of India BENTIU, SOUTH SUDAN: Mary Nyariekhah Dabuol pats her belly and says she is proud that her ninth child will grow up in independent South Sudan, even if she and many others here fear another war with Sudan. On Tuesday, a bomber plane caused widespread … |
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PaanLuel Wël Media Ltd - South Sudan 